Does Poland still meet the conditions for access to EU funds? Troublesome questions for the government in Brussels

Known for his uncompromising fight for the rule of law against the PiS authorities and Viktor Orban's government, Daniel Freund now questions the European Commission's assessment of the rule of law in Poland. Due to the current crisis surrounding the Constitutional Tribunal, he asks the European Commission whether it should re-check whether Poland still meets the conditions for using EU funds.

The case concerns the mechanism that the Commission applied to Poland during the PiS government. In 2022, Brussels suspended the refund of EUR 76 billion of funds for Poland for 2021-2027 because Warsaw did not meet the condition for effective implementation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (independence of the judiciary, e.g. access to the appeal procedure and non-discrimination). At the same time, EUR 60 billion from the KPO was blocked, but in this case the basis was specific milestones regarding the independence of the judiciary.

In February 2024, after the change of government and Poland presenting a plan to restore the rule of law, the EC recognized the condition regarding the Charter of Fundamental Rights as met and opened access to funds for Poland.

This did not mean, however, that all the conditions and problems of the Polish judiciary had been resolved and the laws had been adopted. It was already then unofficially admitted in Brussels that the EC's decision to unblock the funds was of a political nature. In addition, EU regulations require that these conditions are met throughout the programming period, and the Commission is obliged to monitor their implementation.

Questions about criteria for assessing the rule of law

This is exactly what Daniel Freund questioned during a debate in the European Parliament's budgetary control committee with Raffaele Fitto, Commissioner for Regional Policy.

He asked what specific criteria the Commission uses when assessing the independence of the judiciary in Poland and what exactly it monitors, since - as he argued - there are about 3,000 judges appointed illegally in Poland, and problems with the functioning of the courts concern the entire system, not only the Constitutional Tribunal. And he accused the Commission of lack of transparency in assessing whether the conditions are met.

We accepted the promises of the current Polish government and its plan to repair the situation as a signal that everything is now in order. Meanwhile, it's not okay. The government has not been able to carry out the necessary reforms because the president refuses to sign these laws, Freund said. Of course, the MEP has no illusions that the current crisis was caused by the decisions of the PiS authorities at that time. All this has been confirmed by the Court of Justice of the EU and the European Court of Human Rights. The Polish courts that were still functioning at that time also said the same, he said.

In his opinion, however, the mere presentation by Donald Tusk's government of a plan to repair the rule of law should not mean that the case is closed.

At some point, the Commission must reassess whether the horizontal basic conditions are actually met, he argued.

Therefore, it is not only about assessing the current situation around the Constitutional Tribunal, but also about the grounds and criteria on which the Commission decided in 2024 that Poland could use the funds again.

The EC assures that the situation is being monitored

Commissioner Fitto did not respond directly to these allegations. He assured that the Commission was monitoring the situation and recalled that it had already taken a position on the Constitutional Tribunal case through Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath.

The Commissioner assured that underlying conditions have been effectively monitored since the beginning of the 2021-2027 programming period. However, the chairman of the budgetary control committee demanded written explanations from the EC on how the EC assesses the rule of law and Poland's obligations.